Kowloon wins

Chapter 476 Encounter ([-])
At noon, the thin fog on the sea finally dissipated. Although the sky was still gloomy, the line of sight was no longer obstructed. The Qing fleet slowly swimming on the sea and the Japanese water rushing at high speed The divisions can already see each other clearly, but the distance is still four miles away. Even the powerful naval guns of the Qing army cannot exert their power. As for the naval guns of the Japanese navy with a range of less than three hundred steps It is impossible to talk about it, and it is impossible for both sides to open fire at this moment. Although the clouds of the war are already dense, it is not yet time for the bayonet to see red.

"Nine miles ahead, we found a group of Qing army warships, six large and twelve small, a total of eighteen ships!"

Just as the Japanese navy was sprinting at high speed, on the main mast of the flagship "Shimono Maru" of its vanguard fleet, the lookout post suddenly discovered the arrival of the main fleet of the Qing army, and couldn't help but exclaimed.

"Baga, quickly report to General Sakata!"

Hearing what the lookout post said, Ono Shinji, the bannerman of the Edo navy who was eagerly planning to attack the vanguard fleet of the Qing army, was taken aback. After cursing, he hurriedly ordered to convey the enemy's situation to the Chinese army.

"Order, all ships move forward at full speed, go all out, eat the current enemy first, and the rear army speed up, bypass the current enemy, and block the enemy's reinforcements!"

Sakata Yokozo obviously didn't expect the main force of the Qing army to appear at this time, so he was also taken aback, but he didn't have the idea of ​​avoiding the battle, but quickly made tactical adjustments, intending to concentrate on the forward and The superior force of more than [-] warships of the Chinese army defeated the vanguard fleet of the Qing army first, and then went to compete with the main force of the Qing army.

"Report, Lord Admiral, eight miles ahead, the enemy fleet has been divided into two groups, one of which has about 340 warships, large and small. Heading southeast, looking at the track, it should be a detour to stop my main fleet!"

With such a division of the Japanese naval division, the lookout post standing on the tall main mast of the flagship "Zhenwu" of the main fleet of the Qing army immediately saw it, dared not delay, and hurriedly reported the changes in the enemy's situation loudly.

The Qing army had a total of [-] large and medium-sized warships in this expedition to Dongying. Among them, there were nine large warships starting with the word "Zhen", and all medium-sized warships starting with the word "Wei". "In the battle of Osaka Bay, all the crew were killed. Although the warship did not sink, it was damaged in many places. It is currently undergoing repairs at the Osaka Wharf. Seven warships headed by the "Singing" stayed in Osaka Bay as a cover. For this purpose, the rest of the ships are here.

"Order: The first squadron immediately turns to the northeast to block the enemy squadron, and the rest of the ships move forward at full speed with full sail!"

In terms of the number of warships, the Qing fleet is only less than one-tenth of the Japanese Edo navy, but Sun Mingxu didn't care at all. Not only was he not afraid, but he became excited. It is necessary to fight against the Edo navy of the Japanese kingdom. If the Edo navy is huddled in Edo Bay, although the Qing fleet is strong, it will inevitably be in danger of being unable to let go. Now, the Edo navy dares to go to sea , to fight the Qing fleet on such an open ocean, this is simply looking for death, Sun Mingxu will not be very polite at all, and gave a tit-for-tat order with a solemn face.

With Sun Mingxu's order, three warships, one large, two small, and three warships in the main fleet of the Qing army rushed out of the sequence at high speed, turned to the northeast, and prepared to meet the division of the Japanese Navy. Go straight forward and quickly approach the main battlefield.

"Every ship is ready, the enemy's vanguard fleet is directly in front of the target, open fire!"

The vanguard fleet of the Japanese Edo Navy headed by the "Shimono Maru" was extremely fast, and within a short while, it had rushed to a distance of less than [-] steps from the Qing army's battle line. Upon seeing this, Wang Changgeng I don’t dare to let the Japanese navy continue to approach at high speed. There is no one else. Although the Qing army’s warships are fierce, they are small in number after all. As long as the battle situation is not going to be optimistic, Wang Changgeng immediately waved his hand forcefully and gave the order to fire loudly when he saw that the Japanese Vanguard Fleet had entered the effective range of his own firepower.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

General Wang Changgeng gave an order, and the heavy artillery on the starboard side of the ships facing the Japanese Vanguard Fleet, which had been on standby for a long time, immediately started firing in sequence. In the roaring sound, ninety huge shells roared across the sea, hitting heavily on the sea surface. The vanguard fleet of the Japanese navy smashed past.

"Hold on, keep going, go up for me!"

The heavy artillery of the Qing army fired solid bullets this round, and each shell weighed forty catties. It was really not something that the thin-skinned warships of the Japanese Navy could afford. Whether the warship is big or small, there will be a big hole that goes straight to the bottom of the ship. If there are two on the middle, the smaller ship will be smashed to pieces immediately. After only one round of shelling, there will be ten Japanese vanguard fleets swarming to kill them. Several ships were blown to pieces, and more than a dozen were smashed to the point of leaking, and slowed down crookedly. Seeing this, Shino Ono's eyes turned red, and he shouted orders angrily, trying to urge his subordinates to The battleship rushed forward, trying to catch the Qing army by surprise while the Qing army was loading ammunition.

"All ships shoot freely!"

Shinji Ono's idea is undoubtedly good, but unfortunately the reality is cruel - the heavy artillery used by the warships of the Qing army is not the old-fashioned artillery used by the navy of Japan. To ignite the fire, you only need to load the shells from the breech and fire the gunpowder packs. No, the Qing army had already loaded the shells before the Japanese vanguard fleet, which was desperately approaching, rushed a hundred steps away. Under the order, the four warships of the Qing army began to show their power again.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

In this round of shelling, the Qing army no longer used solid bullets, but replaced them with flowering shells. Ninety huge shells exploded in the formation of the Japanese navy, and the flames burst out in an instant, and the shrapnel flew randomly. The officers and soldiers of the Japanese Navy who were caught off guard were blown up to the point of howling ghosts and wolves, and dozens of warships burst into flames. The fire was so big that it was impossible to save it at all. Had to jump into the icy sea.

"Fire, strike, strike!"

The flagship "Shimono Maru" where Shinji Ono was located was naturally one of the key targets of the Qing army. It was only due to luck that the "Shimomaru" was unscathed by the two rounds of shelling by the Qing army. But what, Shinji Ono He didn't feel lucky, on the contrary, he was furious. Nothing else, the vanguard fleet he led sank 32 warships without even touching the side of the Qing army's ship, and more than a dozen battleships were damaged. , already unable to keep up with his own charge formation, in the face of such a huge loss, Ono Shinji was going crazy, and when he rushed to a distance of about [-] steps from the Qing army's battle line, he roared recklessly.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

The Edo navy is directly under the Tokugawa shogunate, and it is the elite of the Japanese navy. Compared with the Osaka navy, it is much stronger, regardless of the quality of the soldiers and the warships. The large warships have two bow guns and one stern gun, the medium warships have one bow gun and one stern gun, and the small warships have only one bow gun. Well, they didn't set up guns, nothing else, because most of the tactics of the Japanese navy still stayed at the level of boarding battles, and they didn't rely much on artillery fire. Besides, the so-called large-scale warfare of the Japanese navy In fact, the boats are not that big, they are only more than thirty meters long in total. Compared with the huge sea giants of the Qing army's large warships that are hundreds of meters in size, they are just small things like toys. The old-style cannons used were also weak. Although they were already shooting at close range, the range of the cannons of the Japanese navy was still too limited. The hit rate was pitifully low even though there were more than a dozen The shell barely hit the Qing army warship, but unfortunately the penetration was insufficient. Apart from the thumping of the Qing army ship's side, there was no result.

"Full sail, turn left, and prepare to join the main fleet!"

Seeing the fleet of the Japanese Navy fleet rushing closer and closer, Wang Changgeng didn't want to play side-to-side battle with it, so he waved his hand solemnly, and issued an order in a loud voice. Immediately, he saw the vanguard fleet of the Qing army began to accelerate, First, along the north-to-west direction, with the help of the crosswind, a beautiful arc was drawn on the ocean surface, and then by taking advantage of the downwind, it quickly threw off a large part of the vanguard fleet of the Japanese navy, and headed towards the main force of its own side at high speed. The direction of the battle line opened in the past.

"Chase, chase after me!"

The Vanguard Fleet of Japan took advantage of the turning of the Qing fleet and narrowed the distance between the two sides to about [-] steps. , the speed increased several times at once, and in an instant, the pursuers were thrown out by two hundred steps. When this happened, even though Shin Erdang Ono became angry, he ignored the battle line of the Qing army's main fleet He roared again and again and drove the remaining [-] or so warships to chase after him.

"Baga, you idiot Xiaoye! The Chinese fleet is already there, turn to the southeast, copy it, and eat the small Chinese fleet behind it first!"

Sakata Yokozo had learned about the battle formations and artillery power of the Qing army navy from the defeated soldiers of the Osaka navy before he set off on the expedition, but he didn't really believe it at the beginning, otherwise, he would not have been so easily He then led the entire fleet to the south for a decisive battle with the Qing fleet. Now that he has experienced it himself, he knows that the rumors are true, but the battle has already been fought to this point, but he can't stand Yokozo Sakata backing down. It's just that he didn't He didn't intend to just bear the artillery bombardment of the Qing army's main fleet, but let Ono Shinji go to die, and he himself led the main fleet to turn around, take a tangent, avoid the battle line where the Qing army's main force was, and go straight to the battle line. Going to the southeast battlefield, I plan to join forces with our own interception fleet, and first eat the first squadron that the Qing army is in charge of covering...

(End of this chapter)